Exile | Continuation of Personalities | Nygmakins

Chapter Twenty Five

As Edward and Tabby make their way down the eerily quiet hallway of the facility, they hear faint, deep breathing. It's the first sign of life they've encountered so far, and it should be Cyrus, if Edward's information is correct.

They find him sitting cross-legged on his bed, a snake around his neck. Silent. Alone. And . . . in an unguarded room with an open door.

Edward finds that quite odd.

Tabby crouches down to his level. "Cyrus? Baby?"

Edward's heart lurches when he hears her say 'baby.' It's what both he and Lee had called Kristen from time to time. Especially when she had been floating in that tank.

The boy calmly takes the snake off of his neck and places it on the bed, touching its head gently, soothingly. "That's a good boy. Sleepytime now."

The snake coils up . . . and appears to go to sleep.

"They call me Shiva," the boy says. "And this is Vasuki, King of the Serpents. Did you know that all his subjects are gold?"

"Oh Cyrus, baby." Tabby sighs as she lifts a hand to his top knot. "Have they ever even bothered to wash your hair?"

Edward finally notices what Tabby had seen right away, now that they are up close. The boy's hair is nothing but mats partially coiled up into a bun. It's probably never been washed. It doesn't help that the dark skin of his bare chest is covered in ash, partially obscuring it. He looks so ragged - yet vibrant at the same time - especially his two open eyes. The dichotomy is unsettling.

It's difficult for Edward to look upon a child so much like his own. Long black hair, four arms, and a slit above his eye. A third eye. Unopened just like hers had been. Would Kristen have grown to this size already if she had lived these past few months?

One good thing about the ashes on his chest, though - they mask the scars. Edward doesn't want to have to explain to Tabby what all the incisions littering his torso really mean. At all hits too close to home. The boy isn't going to live long.

But she notices them anyway, touches them. "What happened here?"

"These?" the boy asks pointing to a few, happy to answer. "Oh, these are left behind when they remove the lumps."

"Lumps?" Tabby asks, confused.

A lump instantly forms in Edward's throat as he thinks about how this could have been Kristen's exact fate. It's constricting.

"Who ARE you?" the little boy asks the leather-clad woman crouching before him. "You look like a big cat, a tiger, but you're human. I can tell. What's your story?"

"There is no story, baby," Tabby answers him quietly. "I'm your mother."

"I have a mother?" the boy exclaims, his eyes wide for just a second before he leaps into her arms, all four of his clenching tightly about her. Like a crab. The boy starts to cry tears of joy . . .

But Edward's aren't.

Not as his father holds him one last time and whispers to him quietly. "You've gotta let go, bud. Of her. Of me."

Edward sniffles and just holds onto his dad even tighter as he sees the final swish of his mother's skirt as it gets caught in the closing door of the vestibule. He squeezes his eyes shut against the image.

"What if I don't want to?" he whispers back to his father, who pulls away from him just enough to look into his eyes.

He gives his son a little shake and says quietly, "It will be easier if you do."

But he can't let go of Kristen. He thought he could, but no. And he won't likely ever be able to - he can no longer split off the part of himself that remembers her. Watching the scene before him, Edward desperately wishes his little girl's arms were around him once more - just like all four of Cyrus' are clinging to his mother.

Edward starts to feel faint and knows he's got to get out of there. Gruffly, he says, "I gotta go - do . . . that stuff I told you about."

Tabby barely gives him a passing glance and a nod before turning back to her son, not even noticing the few tears that have escaped Edward's eyes.

"Now, your father was named Butch. He was a big, strong man. . . Just like you're going to be. I can tell."

Edward knows that Cyrus is not going to reach manhood, but he doesn't correct her - he just leaves.